Collins Charles Edwin IV 4

What Happened

• Collins Charles Edwin IV (CEO) exercised options to acquire a total of 13,568 shares of ARGAN common stock on April 20–21, 2026 and sold those same shares on the open market the same days. Exercise costs totaled about $539,704 and gross sale proceeds were about $8,404,979 — a difference of roughly $7.87M.
• Breakout by date/lot:
  • 2026-04-20: Exercised 2,500 shares at $39.47 ($98,675) and sold 2,500 shares at $610.00 ($1,525,000). (Footnotes F1–F2)
  • 2026-04-21: Exercised 5,000 at $36.78 ($183,900), 5,235 at $33.81 ($176,995), 500 at $61.22 ($30,610) and 333 at $148.72 ($49,524) — total 11,068 shares exercised ($441,029) — and sold 11,068 shares at an average $621.61 ($6,879,979). (Footnotes F3–F7)
• This pattern — exercising options and then selling the exact shares the same day — is commonly a cashless exercise or immediate sale of exercised shares (not necessarily a separate open-market buy).

Key Details

• Transaction dates & prices:
  • Apr 20, 2026: 2,500 exercised @ $39.47; sold @ $610.00.
  • Apr 21, 2026: 11,068 exercised across four option grants @ $33.81–$148.72; sold @ ~$621.61 avg.
• Aggregate: 13,568 shares exercised; exercise cost ≈ $539,704; gross sale proceeds ≈ $8,404,979.
• Shares owned after transaction: Not disclosed in the provided filing excerpt.
• Footnotes: Exercises relate to option awards dated Apr 16, 2020; Apr 18, 2022; Apr 17, 2023; Apr 16, 2024; and Apr 10, 2025 (see F1–F6). Sales were open-market transactions (F2, F7).
• Filing timeliness: Form 4 filed 2026-04-22 for transactions on Apr 20–21, 2026 — this appears to be within the standard two-business-day reporting window.

Context

• For options-related filings: because the exercised shares were sold the same day for the same amounts exercised, these transactions function like cashless exercises — the insider converted option value to cash rather than adding long-term stock exposure. That is a routine executive liquidity event and should be viewed as such (factual, not a judgment on company prospects).
• No indication in the excerpt of a 10b5-1 plan, gifts, or tax-withholding share retention; the filing shows open-market sales following exercise.